The regulatory relief bill which last week became law makes changes to the CFPB’s ability-to-repay rule, and attorneys expect that more major changes will come from the bureau’s reassessment of the qualified-mortgage standards. The Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act will allow financial institutions with less than $10 billion in assets to offer mortgages that don’t meet all the requirements of the QM rule, such as ...

Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney has said he wants to end the bureau’s “regulation by enforcement,” but a recent case filing shows that the agency is not necessarily scaling back its enforcement efforts with respect to novel legal interpretations, industry attorneys said. At issue is a case brought by the CFPB against D&D Marketing, a marketing company. The case was filed in 2015 under former Director Richard Cordray, for alleged unfair, deceptive, and abusive ...

Small nonbanks want the CFPB to exercise the risk-based approach to supervision mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act, arguing that regulators don’t understand the sector’s business model. A group of over 50 lenders sent a letter to the CFPB last week asking the bureau to exempt smaller independent mortgage bankers from its examinations and audits. They argued that the Dodd-Frank Act requires the agency to exercise risk-based supervision, taking into ...

Senate Democrats are asking for more information from Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney about the reorganization of the bureau’s student protection unit and ending public disclosure of the consumer complaint database. Sen. Sherrod Brown, OH, ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, and Sen. Patty Murray, WA, ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, led the group ...

The CFPB payday lending rule has survived Congress, but Acting Director Mick Mulvaney suggested that the bureau will work with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to change it. “The bureau will strive to expand consumer choice, and I look forward to working with the OCC and other partners on efforts to promote access and innovation in the consumer credit marketplace,” Mulvaney said in a statement. The acting director applauded an OCC ...

Mick Mulvaney, the acting director of the CFPB, said the priority of his interim tenure at the consumer agency, which will end June 22, is to make the bureau a “gold-standard regulator.” Gold-standard regulators, by his definition, are beyond the realm of partisan bickering, and are not affected by political transitions. The best examples are the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., he said. …

The CFPB’s request for information on enforcement has drawn a lot of attention from industry groups, consumer advocates and individuals. Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney said the agency will end regulation by enforcement and stop pushing the envelope in its interpretation of the law. Trade groups have offered up numerous nitty-gritty suggestions on improving its enforcement practices. The agency “has made no secret about the fact that, over the ...

Banking groups had plenty of suggestions in response to the CFPB’s request for feedback on its supervisory activities, starting with better communication and coordination. The CFPB supervises banks with more than $10 billion in assets and nonbanks that offer consumer financial products or services. Trade groups railed against the agency’s so-called regulation by enforcement, and instead urged the bureau to provide more guidance. “To date, the bureau’s ...

The CFPB is Not Backing Off Aggressive UDAAP Claims. The CFPB recently filed a brief in a case against Think Finance that was brought by former director Richard Cordray. The CFPB sued the company for collecting on debts that consumers didn’t legally owe. The brief supported the agency’s original claims. [Include one brief] ...

A key Treasury Department official said regulatory reform could help rejuvenate the non-agency MBS market but offered little guidance on the future prospects for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.